curiouser & curiouser

Tag Archives: marriage

Finally, right? Besides the fact that I’ve been neglecting this blog for months and months, I really just didn’t want to talk about the wedding. You know why?

Because I hated every single second of planning it.

Every single one. Except perhaps for the tastings of the food and the cake, that was okay. everything else was just A LOT. It felt worse than it probably was because I so stubbornly just did. not. want. to. do. it. Planning a wedding has never really excited me as much as the notion of being married, which to me feels like the right way of looking at it. I don’t want to point fingers at Pinterest or the wedding industry for making having a big fancy wedding such a big deal, but I just could not wrap my head around it. All that planning and money spent for one day? One day? It still boggles my mind and it’s stressing me out just writing about it now. I absolutely 100% did this for my mother. She knows that, and bless her heart she funded most of it, so I can’t be too hard on her. But if I did it all over again? Backyard wedding, all the way. Courthouse wedding, even. Small, casual, cheap.

Despite my feelings about planning it and deep down inside wanting something completely different, it was the best wedding ever. I might be biased, but everyone else says so too, so there. Seriously, everyone had a blast. The food was awesome. Literally no one ate the cake except for the two bites we took when we cut it, which I knew would happen. Don’t bother with a cake, brides. Trust me on this. We danced, we drank, we ate. I wish I could have eaten more but I physically could not fit anymore food into my dress. The food was just that good.

Now that the wedding is over, life has returned to normal. I am free to use all that mental energy on something else. Lately it’s been work (found out I was getting a promotion just before the wedding, what a treat!) and the house. I love being married, but it feels real good not having to deal with wedding planning anymore.

It’s my grandfather’s 80th birthday today. (Happy birthday, Grampy!) On Saturday night the whole family got together to take him out for a celebration dinner. We sat around laughing, eating, and having the type of ridiculous conversations my family is known for.

“How old are you now?” my Great Aunt E asked, apropos of nothing.

“Twenty-seven,” I told her.

“Twenty-seven and unwed,” my delightful mother said pointedly.

“Oh leave her alone!” Grammy chimed in, always coming to my defense.

“Well even the weird girl that lives on the corner is getting married! We saw her taking pictures with her bridal party outside this afternoon!”

“Katrina, I don’t know if you knew this, but I never married Cousin G’s father. I never got married, it’s fine. In fact, my Auntie Mabel never got married either! She was with someone – Ernie – for YEARS and they never got married or had children.” Great Aunt E helpfully supplied this tidbit of family history.

“Oh great!” I moaned, flopping dramatically over the table, “I’m going to end up just like Auntie Mabel!”

“I think he went by ‘Ernest’, actually,” Grammy chimed in.

Everyone is laughing at my plight like it’s adorable. I threaten to change my name to Mabel.

“Mabel, Mabel, set the table!” my mother chants helpfully.

“Well, what about N?” Great Aunt E asks.

“He’s a dud!” I say, and my uncle guffaws. “He’s my Ernie!”

“Mabel and Ernie, together forever but never giving me a wedding or grandchildren! I am not okay with this!” Mother squawks. It’s always about her.

So apparently women in my family have a history of being un-wed and hanging around with guys who will never commit. Great Great Aunt Mabel, Great Aunt E, and now probably me.